Chapter the 3rd
Later that morning, Gwen packed lunches for me, Cynthia, and herself and fixed Sherman some breakfast. When it was time for us to leave for school, Cynthia woke mom up and told her it was time for her to wake up and take care of Sherman. Then we were off to school. Usually, I split off from the girls and walk with my buddies but this morning, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see my them, so I walked with my sisters for a change. Gwen kept mum about Kerry all the way. That gave me some hope that she’d forgotten her fighting words, but when we got to the corner where our schools are, she told me in no uncertain terms that she would be waiting for me when I got out and that we were going to search the park for Kerry. I shrugged her off and went over to the middle school. Just outside the door, I ran into a solemn welcoming committee of my friends.
“Did the fuzz hassle you, too?” John asked.
“Yea,” I replied. “Made me feel like a criminal.”
“Are you out on bail?” Karen asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t they arrest you?” Ron asked.
“No, why should they?”
“Who else could have made Kerry disappear?” Ron asked me, his face tense with hostility.
“Space aliens, maybe,” I answered.
“Maybe you’re one of them,” said John.
“How come you’re all blaming me?” I asked then.
“It has to be somebody’s fault, doesn’t it?” Karen replied.
Then they all walked away from me, everybody but Margot. I had forgotten she was there when she didn’t say anything.
“You don’t think it was my fault, do you?” I asked her, feeling pretty miserable.
“Of course not. Ron’s upset, that’s all. Were the cops pretty awful with you, too?”
“You bet your last sock they were.”
Margot ran her foot through the gravel a moment.
“Gwion, you didn’t say anything about those trees, did you?”
“Of course not.”
“Uh—what about Marakel? Did they ask you about him?”
“Yea, they asked about a strange kid who went into Kerry’s room and sent Kerry’s mom into a panic. I wasn’t about to tell them I saw the kid.”
“I knew I could count on you.”
What was relief.
“Yea,” I said, “I counted on you, too.”
I got to my first period class, social studies, just in time. Although it was crazy, I looked back to Kerry’s desk. He was there! No! It was somebody else. It was Marakel! I wasn’t surprised about his ending up in our class, but I wondered why Ms. McGregor would put him in Kerry’s place. I also wondered why she didn’t introduce the new boy to the class. Instead, she was going on a tangent about the natural resources in Zimbabwe before picking on a couple of kids to see how poorly they’d read the assignment. This was one assignment I didn’t even try to do anything with and I was afraid I was going to have to endure that cold, hard stare of hers. But instead, she called on Kerry!
“There is gold and silver under their ground,” said Marakel.
You should have seen the expression on Ms. McGregor’s face!
“Who are you and what are you doing in this room?” she asked him.
That explained why Ms. McGregor didn’t introduce the new boy to the class. It really gave me the creeps to think that Gwen might be right about Marakel taking Kerry’s place.
“Is this not the house of learning?” Marakel asked Ms. McGregor in his accent.
Not surprisingly, several kids covered their mouths to hide their giggling. I suppose I would have done the same if I hadn’t already run into this kid.
“Yes, that is a way to say it,” Ms. McGregor replied. “We call this place a school. However, nobody told me that you were joining our class.”
“I am saying it now that I am joining your class,” said Marakel.
A lot of kids couldn’t hold back their laughter any longer. Ms. McGregor silenced them with that glare of hers, then turned to Marakel.
“Before joining my class, or any other class, you must register at the office.”
“Register?”
“Yes, your parents have to sign you up. Gwion, will you please take this boy to the office?”
That was hardly an assignment I wanted but I had no choice. I nodded to Marakel and led him out of the room and down the hall.
“I think she does not want me,” Marakel said to me in a level voice.
“She won’t mind having you if you get registered at the office,” I told him. “How come your parents didn’t come and sign you up?”
“Parents?”
“Come off it, Marakel, you must know that your parents are the ones who gave you birth.”
“Oh. The ones who—who made me possible. No, they do not come here.”
I stopped at the entrance to the school office, but Marakel kept on going.
“Here’s the office,” I told him.
“I will not be here,” said Marakel, still keeping his voice steady although I would think he was feeling pretty hurt. “I will not stay in this house of learning. I will find a place for my learning. Maybe you can help me with my learning. I need learning to help you find Kerry.”
“Uh—why do you want to help us find Kerry?” I asked.
Marakel stared out at the street in front of the school.
“You are my tribe,” said Marakel. “I help my tribe.”
“WHAT?”
“You are my tribe. I help my tribe,” Marakel repeated. “Are we going now to find Kerry?”
This was too weird! My insides were twisting in all different directions because of Marakel.
“No,” I answered. “I have to stay here until school is out.”
“We will find Kerry later.”
With that, Marakel walked on out of the school. I went back to social studies class and pretended nothing odd had happened. Fortunately, my teacher was too steamed up about Zimbabwe to worry about the boy who hadn’t registered for school.
Lunch was pretty lonely because I assumed my so-called friends didn’t want to see me and I wasn’t ready to see them, either. My only hope was that Margot might sit with me but she came into the lunch room with Karen and the two of them sat with Ron and John. That left me in the left-field bleachers in the back row. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Margot wasn’t being friendly by speaking to me before school started; she was just making sure I didn’t tell the cops anything that would make trouble for her.
I didn’t mind being left all alone that much—well, I did mind it—what I mean is that the real problem with being left alone was that it left me at the mercy of social groups that are always at war with mine. One of those groups came up to me after lunch and the guys called me a lot of nasty names. I returned the favor. Then they started to push me around a bit. In one-on-one situations, I’m okay, but I can’t fight a whole group all by myself, so I didn’t shove or hit back and take a chance of escalating things into a fight. Even so, the guys in that gang were showing signs that they might get carried away with the opportunity to pick on an enemy. One of the guys slammed me into a locker. I thought I was done for then but a couple of guys stepped in front of my enemies.
“Having a nice day?” Ron asked them.
“Uh—yea,” one of the guys replied, seeing that John was standing next to him.
“Don’t tempt us to ruin it,” Ron advised him.
The point was only too clear. Ron and John are formidable opponents in a fight singly. Together, even a group will have trouble. When our enemies went their separate ways to class, I tried to thank Ron and John, but they were already half-way down the hall. That gave me an odd feeling. They weren’t on speaking terms with me yet, but they were still ready to defend me in a pinch.
By the time school got out, I was so skewered by everything that I wanted to get to my condo and into my room as fast as possible and pretend that the last twenty-four hours hadn’t happened. I made a quick getaway before Gwen could find me and got up to Clark Street. Along the way back to the high-rise, you pass these little retro shops that are supposed to make you think the last fifty years didn’t happen. For starters, there’s a shoe repair place where a guy actually repairs shoes and a laundry that washes clothes right on the premises.
And then there’s Parchment Place. That’s a second-hand bookstore. Kerry is always stopping in to stick his nose in one book or another. More than once I’d exhausted all the new science fiction stuff while Kerry was just getting started and I had to leave him there if I was going to get home before midnight. I took a quick look inside on the off chance that Kerry had turned up there. There he was!, sitting with his back to me and talking to old Mr. Kirkpatrick himself, spectacles and all. He’s the kind of guy who likes talking to anybody who likes books as much as he does and Kerry is one of them. That’s another reason why I often leave Kerry behind there. I don’t like to talk books. I have to read too many in school as it is. Why add to the torture just for the fun of it? I hesitated about going in to welcome Kerry back. Maybe I was already beginning to see that something was wrong. I’d already been fooled once that day. Not wanting to be fooled a second time, I looked more carefully and scooted away from the store just as Mr. Kirkpatrick waved at me. I should have known from the first that Marakel, searching for a place of learning, would turn up there and that Mr. Kirkpatrick was the sort who would take him in.
I made a beeline straight to Jay’s Candy Shop. I hadn’t been so desperate for a candy fix in a long time and it doesn’t take much desperation to make me stop there. This is one of those places where they sell real candy that they make on the spot. You even get to see them make a batch of it the corner of the place.
“May I help you?” Jay asked me cheerfully.
I don’t know if Jay is the man’s name, but that’s what I call him. He’s an Asian of some sort, Indian or Pakistani maybe. I pointed out my choices of the day and he filled a bag for me.
“THERE YOU ARE!”
I didn’t have to look around to know who that was. When you have a kid sister, you know her voice anywhere. However, by looking, I found out that Margot was with Gwen and they had little Cynthia tagging along with them.
“I see you know where to look for your brother,” said Jay with a twinkle in his eye.
“Are you treating us or do we have to buy our own?” Margot asked.
“Buy your own,” I replied as I handed the vendor the money for my candy.
“I thought you were going to meet me after school,” Gwen said with an accusing look.
“I thought differently,” I replied.
“I thought you wanted to find Kerry.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to meet you after school and look for him with you.”
“You promised.”
“Didn’t mean to,” I said as I started to duck out of the store. “Go buy your candy if you’re going to. Maybe your teeth will rot and you won’t be able to talk for the rest of your life.”
“GWION!” Gwen yelled.
You wouldn’t think an eleven-year old girl could freeze you in the doorway of a shop with the sound of her voice, but Gwen can do it. Or, at least she can do it when you have a guilty conscience.
“I don’t care if you promised to help find Kerry or not,” Gwen went on. “I expect you to do it. He’s your friend, isn’t he?”
“Yea.”
So, I was stuck with hanging about in the store as Gwen pointed to the spicy gum drops she always wanted and Cynthia picked out what she wanted and what she thought Sherman wanted. After they had their candy, they waited for Margot, and so I guessed that Gwen had already recruited her or vice versa.
“I take it, then that Kerry hasn’t turned up?” Jay asked us.
“No,” said Margot.
Jay sighed.
“He’s one of my best customers. I suppose it is because he is a good customer that the police swarmed into this store the minute it opened to ask me questions. I wish they knew that just because I sell candy to someone doesn’t mean I kidnaped him or know who did.”
“Last night they treated me like a criminal, too,” said Margot.
“And they accused Gwion of kidnaping him when they were playing baseball,” added Gwen.
“How come the cops jumped on you guys?” asked Jay.
“Because we’re his friends,” said Margot.
“May I help you?” Jay asked somebody who I assumed had just come in.
When I saw the customer, I just about dropped my biceps. It was Marakel! Wasn’t I ever going to get away from him? Margot seemed to react to him about the same way I did.
“Are you helping us find Kerry?” Marakel asked Jay.
“Uh—well—I wasn’t going to close up shop and search for him myself,” said Jay, “much as I want him back and have his business back. Would you like a quarter pound of chocolates? We have only the best. Chocolate gives you extra energy. You’ll need that if you’re going to chase after Kerry.”
Marakel looked carefully at the candy display. Gwen looked at Marakel, then at me. Then she pointed at Marakel behind his back and mouthed the question: Is he the one? I nodded, knowing there was no way Margot would let me fudge on this and knowing as well that I had probably already given myself away.
“I will accept these servings,” said Marakel as he pointed to some fudge creams.
“A quarter pound?”
“Yes.”
“That will be one-forty-five,” said the vendor as soon as he had the candy on the scale.
“I—do not understand the numbers,” said Marakel. “What are they counting?”
“That is one dollar and forty-five cents,” said Jay. “Are you new to this country?”
“Yes, I am new. I do not have the dollars and the cents you asked for.”
“I’ll buy it for you,” Gwen offered.
Marakel showed no sign of gratitude or even a sign that he noticed Gwen at all when she went back to the counter and paid out the money. Marakel didn’t seem to know what to do with the bag, so Gwen took it and handed it to Marakel.
“Are you coming with us to search for Kerry?” Gwen asked Marakel.
Margot gave me a startled, furious look. Maybe I’d kept quiet with the cops, but I’d spilled the beans to Gwen and she didn’t like it.
“Yes,” said Marakel. “I will help you find Kerry.”
“Do you have any idea of where he could be?” I asked, hoping to make his help seem too absurd to bother with.
“I have—some thought of where he is. Do you have thoughts of where he is?”
Not much,” said Margot. “But I guess looking around in the park where he disappeared is worth trying one more time.”
It was a slight relief to me that Margot was too concerned with being nice to Marakel to bother with being angry at me for telling Gwen about him.
“Then let’s go!” Gwen ordered.
“Yes, Sir!” I said with a full plate of sarcasm.
“I hope you find Kerry real soon!” Jay called out as we left the store.
“Me, too!” Margot called back.
Outside the store Gwen, always the friendly one, introduced herself to Marakel and showed no sign that she thought Marakel had a funny name. Cynthia was making a mess of her face as she usually does when she eats candy. For once, Gwen was too worked up about something else to wipe the chocolate away. She stared at Marakel with all the curiosity a kid as weird as he is deserves, but Marakel didn’t seem to notice it.
“If we’re going to find Kerry,” said Gwen, “then we’ll have to make a list of all the clues we have.”
“There aren’t any, except for the clump of trees that disappeared,” I said.
“Trees that stopped being there?” asked Marakel.
“Yea, something like that. Does that count as a clue?”
“Yes,” said Marakel.
That got me thinking of the thoughts I’d had last night. I decided that everything else was so weird that I wouldn’t be mocked for making crazy suggestions.
“Do you remember that weird computer game Kerry downloaded off the Web?” I asked Margot “The one that almost turned Kerry into a zombie?”
“How could I ever forget?”
“Computer game?” asked Marakel.
“I’m afraid that’s too much to explain right now,” I said.
“I know you are talking about a game you play on a computer,” said Marakel. “Is the computer game you talk about a clue?”
I guess that computers are one thing a kid who doesn’t know anything would still know something about.
“I guess it’s a clue,” I said. “Margot, do you remember the trees that appeared on the screen in Kerry’s game?”
“Let me think—“ said Margot, “Omygod! You might be right—but I can’t be sure—How could a computer game jump out on the playing field at the park?”
“Excuse me, but I’ve never pulled that trick before,” I replied, “so don’t ask me to explain it.”
“What computer game are you talking about?” Gwen asked, her mouth full of sticky candy.
“It’s a game Kerry downloaded a few days ago,” I answered, accepting the fact that Gwen was going to know everything anyway. “The game almost sucked Kerry into the computer and the rest of us barely got him out of it. The trees in the computer game looked like the trees I saw on the baseball field in the park.”
“Or, the trees in the park looked like the trees in the computer game,” said Margot.
“Are you saying that the computer game nabbed Kerry in the park?” Gwen asked.
“Maybe.”
“Can you show me where the computer game logged on in the park?” Marakel asked us.
“We’re getting there,” I answered, my insides shaking more and more with every step.
When we got to the park, I wondered what we would do with Cynthia. Fortunately, Gwen solved the problem for us.
“Cynthia,” said Gwen. “Can you do me and Mom and Sherman a favor?”
“What?”
“Can you go home and take care of Sherman if Mom needs to go out or something?”
Cynthia looked at Marakel, looking like she had already adopted him as a better older brother than me.
“Do I have to?”
Gwen stooped down and planted her hands on Cynthia’s shoulders.
“I’m not bossing you around,” said Gwen, “I’m just asking you to do me a big favor. I have to help find Kerry and Mom needs to have somebody come home and take care of Sherman. Okay?
Gwen placed a few gum drops into Cynthia’s hands; the ultimate bribe.
“Okay.”
Cynthia turned away and crossed the street to the high rise without looking too disappointed. In the park, a group of boys were playing baseball in a far corner. To my relief, John, Ron and Karen weren’t around.
“This is where we were playing baseball,” said Margot. “Home plate is way over there. The pie tin is still there. See it? I was pitching to Ron and Ron hit the ball to about where we are standing and Kerry chased it and then disappeared.
“Where was Gwion?” Marakel asked.
I walked briskly along the field until I got to the place where I was playing infield.
“About here,” I said.
Marakel stood very still for a moment, deep in thought, as he absorbed the information. That’s when it occurred to me that it was funny that Marakel seemed to know what a baseball game was even though there were so many things that he didn’t have a clue about.
“Where did the trees like the trees in the computer game jump out of the ground?” Marakel asked.
I trotted out to the centerfield area and swept my hand.
“Here,” I said.
Marakel walked about in the area with very small steps with his eyes glued to the ground. He stooped down to take a closer look at something that caught his eye, then stood up again. He took a few more careful steps and then stooped down again.
“What are you doing, Marakel?” Gwen asked him.
“I am finding the tree,” said Marakel.
Marakel picked up a small piece of bark and looked at it so closely I thought he was about to pull a magnifying glass out of his pocket just like Sherlock Holmes.
“You’re a real detective,” said Gwen.
“Like Sherlock Holmes?” asked Marakel. “He is a detective, I think. He found things because he was looking for them.”
Once again, I was amazed with the things Marakel did know. My own detective’s guess was that Marakel had never been in America before, but he had studied a lot of stuff about America. Marakel stooped down one more time, picked up a twig and tapped a piece of bark with it. Then he stooped back down and wedged the piece of bark into the ground close to where he’d picked it up. Nothing happened for a moment, but then, all of a sudden, a clump of tree trunks snaked out of the ground and spread out branches filled with tiny yellow leaves that looked like pin pricks of light. There was no question about it; the trees were very much like the trees I saw when Kerry was chasing the fly ball, and they looked a lot like the trees in Kerry’s computer game.
“We weren’t just seeing things!” Margot exclaimed in a whisper.
“Are these the trees you saw when Kerry disappeared?” Marakel asked.
“Yes,” I admitted, amazed that I hadn’t lost my voice.
Marakel nodded and picked up the piece of bark. The sound of a high-pitched instrument floated out from the trees. I felt like ants were running up and down my spine.
“We find Kerry this way,” said Marakel as he walked into the clump of trees.
Gwen dashed into the clump of trees straight after Marakel, trusting soul that she is. Margot and I looked at each other.
“I think we’d better follow and hope for the best,” Margot whispered to me.
I wanted out real bad but I didn’t see how I could walk home, leaving Gwen trapped in Fairy Land, so I took the plunge and walked in among the trees with Margot.